There are 200 deaths a day related to the opiate crisis in the USA. In Scotland we have the highest number of drug-related deaths in Europe, perhaps in the world. A task force set up by the Scottish Government has recommended six interventions to tackle our crisis which we hope will make a difference. I … Continue reading Vaccinating against drug and alcohol deaths
Tag: Mutual Aid
Addiction stigma: the deep irony
Stigma is commanded by a deep irony: where peer pressure is what likely keeps us quiet, peer support is what enables us to speak up.Paul E Terry One of the ways to counter stigma is for people with lived experience of addiction and recovery to share their stories. Indeed, Pat Corrigan, a respected stigma researcher, says … Continue reading Addiction stigma: the deep irony
Strong evidence
Keith Humphreys directs us to a new paper by SMART Recovery UK in support of mutual aid groups in general. It's well written and avoids sectarian arguments of 12 step vs. SMART. Although there is an extensive body of research into Mutual Aid, most studies are methodologically weak, typically describing correlations without the ability to infer … Continue reading Strong evidence
Early mutual aid involvement improves outcomes
DJ Mac provides an outstanding summary of a recently published study on the pre-treatment and early treatment behavior of outpatient addiction treatment patients and their outcomes. He starts with this finding: The folk who tested negative for drugs early on didn’t seem to have worse drug problems, but they did have better mental and physical … Continue reading Early mutual aid involvement improves outcomes
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